Brian Jacob Church Defense Team Statement

We are disappointed that Judge Wilson sentenced the NATO 3 to additional time in prison, albeit far less that the State’s request for 14 years. Our client Brian Jacob Church should be released at the outside in 6 months.

It is quite disturbing that even after the jury resoundingly rejected all the terrorism charges the States Attorney in comparing the case to the Boston bombing continued to demonize the defendants and seek harsh sentences as if this were a terrorism case.

We continue to strongly believe that the entire “terrorism” prosecution was politically motivated by the States Attorney, Chicago Police and Mayor Emmanuel, in an effort to justify the obscene amount of resources and propaganda, including spying and infiltration, devoted to creating climate of fear leading up to the large non-violent protest against NATO. The terrorism arrests days before the large Sunday demonstration was an effort to intimidate the potential peaceful protesters and encourage the police to use unnecessary force against the people who demonstrated.

We think the opinion piece by Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun Times captures the sentiment of many people who followed the legal proceedings “But I will always believe the NATO 3 never posed as great a threat to the freedom of the people of Chicago as those who assigned police officers to infiltrate dissident political groups in search of potential “criminals”— and by those who chose to define those criminals as terrorists.